This drawing shows Kansa Indians participating in a war dance for the
artist Samuel Seymour in 1819 or 1820.  War dances called on the spirits
and transported the warriors into a state of ecstasy in preparation for
battle.  During the point of greatest fr enzy in the dance, the warriors
would feel that they and their horses were the same creature.  Women also
performed dances, to pray for the protection and safe return of their men. 
The Kansa, or Kaw, which means "people of the south wind," were originall
y from the Ohio Valley but migrated to the areas west of the Mississippi. 
They settled on the Kansas River, in the areas now known as Kansas and
Nebraska.  The acquired horses in the early 1700s and joined other Plains
tribes as nomadic buffalo hunters.